Al-free active-region diode lasers grown by low-pressure, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and emitting at &lgr;=805 nm have been optimized for high continuous wave output power. The 1-mm-long devices consisting of anInGaAsP/In0.5Ga0.5P/In0.5(Ga0.5Al0.5)0.5Plaser structure have a threshold-current density,Jth,of 310A/cm2and relatively high values for the characteristic temperatures of the threshold current,T0(135 K), and differential quantum efficiency,T1(900 K). Lasers with 10&percent;/90&percent; coatings and a 100-&mgr;m-wide stripe provide a maximum cw output power of 6.1 W at a heatsink temperature of 10 °C. The devices fail due to catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD), where the internal power density,P¯COMD,is 17.4MW/cm2;that is, twice that for conventionally facet-coated, 810 nm emitting, AlGaAs active-region diode lasers. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.